Marja-Liisa Torniainen:
URBAN WATERS – POOLS

"Urban waters have captured my attention both in European cities and in my home country. The subject of my exhibition is man-made pools and fountains found in cemeteries, parks and along streets, as well as swimming pools in courtyards and Swimming Halls. They are characterized by a clearly defined size and are usually not particularly deep. The fountains are often broken.

The works are two-meter-high tempera- and oil paintings and with those there are very small ones, too. I have also used acrylic paint, ink, watercolor and various combinations. My starting point is always color. This gallery space is now dominated by shades of blue which I have never used before.

I have photographed this urban water theme in Athens, Berlin, Chemnitz and St. Petersburg, for example, and even in series. Despite the location, when viewed from such a close distance, these objects are not much different from each other.

I started in 2011 with the photoseries Power Beauty – The Heart of the City, where I focused on the Tammerkoski rapids from close range. Although photographs and paintings communicate in different languages, many people experience my photographs as paintings. The water theme has been visible in my paintings since the 1990s."

Marja-Liisa Torniainen is a visual artist working in Tampere. She was born in Helsinki 1953 and lived during her youth in Järvenpää, Vihti and Lohja. She is a painter who tirelessly examines her environment through a lens. As a painter, color is the most important thing to her. As a writer, she wants to get to the heart of the matter. Torniainen graduated from Lahti Art School in 1978 and completed a further education degree in Fine Arts at Tampere University of Applied Sciences in 2011. She is a member of the Finnish Painters' Union, the Finnish Association of Photographic Artists and the Finnish Critics' Association.